The present invention generally relates to reusable shaker dispenser bottles or containers of the type used in the home for making, mixing, serving and storing fluid foodstuffs, such as salad dressings, powdered drink mixes, ready-to-mix sauces, marinades, condiments and the like. More particularly, it relates to a new and improved removable and reclosable, substantially leak-free and fling-free cap member for sealably engaging the open top portion of a reusable shaker dispenser bottle, decanter or other storage vessel.
Reusable storage containers specifically suited for use as an all-in-one shaker/mixing bottle, at-table server, and refrigerator storage container are well known. An illustrative reusable container of this type is the reusable cruet provided for making GOOD SEASONS.RTM. salad dressings. Typically, the cruet bottle or vessel is made of see-through glass or a food-safe thermoplastic polymer material. The cruet has a lower base portion and an upper elongate cylindrical neck portion provided with a generally circular top opening.
Caps or lids for the shake, serve and store containers come in a large number of styles. Most are molded from a resilient flexible thermoplastic polymer material and have a generally circular or thin cylindrical configuration. The caps generally include a bottle contacting portion adapted to form a removable fluid-tight seal with the container top opening when the cap is fully installed thereon. Many caps also provide a reclosable opening defining a pouring orifice. A smaller lid structure is provided to recap or close the orifice for shaking and for storage. The smaller lids are usually provided with some type of cooperating engagement or locking means for maintaining the small lid in its closed preferably fluid-tight position on the pouring orifice.
Two-piece structures including the smaller orifice lid and the larger cap member are known but often the smaller top lid becomes lost or separated from the main portion of the cap, which is undesirable. One-piece designs are also known and generally solve this problem. The one-piece cap designs usually include an elongate strap flexibly connected at a first end to the base or body of the cap and having a snap-fit or snap-lock orifice closing portion disposed at the opposed free end of the strap. In use the strap is bent through an angle of greater than 90.degree. to overlie the top in a generally sideways U-shaped configuration to permit the cooperative locking structures on the free end of the strap to be engaged with the orifice opening in the top panel. The unitary or one-piece tops are well known and several minor modifications have been made to improve their performance over the years. In the salad dressing cruet bottle example, the cap body must remain in place during vigorous shaking and the smaller orifice lid must also remain engaged on the orifice opening to prevent leakage of the dressing contents from the bottle during mixing or use. The sealing structures therefore must form strong fluid-tight seals about the pouring orifice and the bottle top, respectively. Although a strong fluid-tight seal is needed, the release force required to disengage the orifice lid or to remove the cap from the bottle for dishwasher washing, for example, should also be low enough that they may be easily removed when desired. These design considerations frequently are counter-fit with each other, i.e., an increase in sealing forces usually also requires an increase in the removal force.
Although prior art one-piece caps have been useful for their purpose, a number of shortcomings have been identified by consumers familiar with their use. More particularly, consumers desire a cap member having an orifice covering equipped with a snap-fit cooperative sealing structures which are substantially leak-free. In addition, the fit of the cap to the glass top should be easier to remove, but also not leak. Another problem consumers have identified is that on releasing the orifice closure, the prior art one-piece strap designs have a tendency to spring open, causing any residue on the inside surface of the orifice lid to fling outwardly, due to stored tension in the strap which consumers find annoying. Moreover, consumers expressed a desire to make their own dressings from their own relatively fresh ingredients including not only thin viscosity, vinaigrette-type oil-based dressings, but also thicker and chunkier dressings such as ranch or blue cheese. The pouring orifices provided in prior art caps and lids frequently did not have an orifice designed to be universally suited for both thin and thicker recipes. Orifices designed to provide controlled flow of vinaigrette-type, low-viscosity dressings generally do not easily permit the pouring of thicker recipes. Thicker recipes tend to stop up prior openings or to glug uncontrollably which is undesirable. Similarly, efforts at enlarging the diameter of the orifice to accommodate thicker recipes has resulted in an orifice which is too large for most oil-based dressings, promoting excessive flow and making it difficult to pour a controlled volume therefrom.
Accordingly, to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art caps and to specifically accommodate the expressed wishes of consumers, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved one-piece removable and reclosable cap for a reusable shaker bottle which is substantially leak-proof and fling-free when the cooperative locking engagement structures closing the pouring orifice are released.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved removable reclosable cap having a universal pouring orifice with a new and improved flow control configuration which permits the thin recipes to be poured with control, i.e., without excessive flow, and thicker recipes to flow smoothly therefrom in use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved removable reclosable cap member for a reusable shaker dispenser bottle which forms strong substantially leak-free fluid-tight seals between the cap member and the dispenser bottle and which is easy to remove when it is desired to remove the cap from the bottle for cleaning and replenishing.